It's a fun run, I really enjoy reading it, and it's imo more entertaining than a couple of highly praised runs on the character

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mace Dolex

The Ratcatcher story is definitely a favorite, it felt like a gritty crime drama.

Rat shouts neek ad Batman saying "No thanks pal", I took a picture of that and posted it on my facebook album of comics before deleting that album entirely, that one is hilarious
It's funny cause the "neek" is how some people in my region say "f***"

It's a fun run, I really enjoy reading it, and it's imo more entertaining than a couple of highly praised runs on the character

Oh definitely, I couldn't agree with you more here

*coughthelonghalloweencough*

*coughhushcough*

__________________A few of the Marvel Superheroes are somewhat niche characters that aren't extremely versatile, thus they don't have a lot of longevity potential. For example, Namor is a water guy, Silver Surfer is a space guy, Dr. Strange is a magic guy, and so on.

I realy realy realy want a good hardcover collection of this run, I own all the issues in triples (no kidding, one for the collection, one run in dutch and another complete US run for binding, but never got to it.) but I keep waiting to hear about collections before I start re-reading them. The entire run was collected in Italian though by Panini...

I got to meet the terrific Alan Grant at Dublin Comic Con this weekend;

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

He was a pleasure to talk to. So friendly, and informative. A real gentleman. I asked him a ton of questions. I also attended a panel he did on writing in the comic book industry. He told me The Ventriloquist was originally supposed to be a villain for Judge Dredd, but then he decided he'd be a better fit for Batman's world.

I asked him out of all the villains he created in his run like Anarky, The Ratcatcher, Kadaver, and The Ventriloquist, which one was his favorite, and he told me Anarky, because he wishes he had been like him when he was 15 years old lol.

He said he tried to refresh Detective by creating all those new villains instead of relying on the old reliable big name popular villains all the time, which is why only Penguin, Joker and Catwoman appear in his run. I told him his Penguin stories, including the one he did in the Secret Origins Special, are some of the best Penguin stories ever written. He told me he loved writing Penguin, and felt he's too underrated in recent years (I agree with him). He also said he heard they killed off The Ventriloquist, and I told him they did, and replaced him with a woman. He asked me was she any good, and I told him she's not a patch on Wesker (which she isn't).

I asked him that since he was writing Batman around the time the first Burton Batman movie came out, and there was a whole new legion of fans and interest in Batman, did he feel the pressure to make quality stories for all the new readers. He said no because he doesn't pay attention to the movies. He said they're two different worlds, and the comics are the real deal, so he kept doing them the way he always did.

He said he did love working under pressure though, and felt he worked best when someone demanded tasks of him. He said he always wrote down all his ideas, and then came up with the stories.

I asked him which story in his run is his favorite, and he said 'Trash' in Detective #613, because it showed the hero of the story as a school child who ends up tragically killed. He said he always tried to show the humanity and tragedy of Batman's world, and that was why he often tackled drugs in his stories because they were a real world problem, and he figured they would be in Batman's, too. I then asked him the immortal question which Batman movie does he like best. He said he doesn't really like any of them, just bits from them. I then asked him what did he think of BTAS, and he said he really liked that, the episodes he'd seen anyway.

I told him his run on Detective is one of the best runs in a Batman comic book ever, and he was very humbled and flattered by that. He said he'd love to be writing Batman again, and I said I do, too. I told him he has a lot of fans. And his stories are still revered and hold up brilliantly today.

It was a great experience chatting to him. He also autographed one of my comics from his Detective run;

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"Sometimes I remember it one way. Sometimes another. If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"

I do not want to rain onto the appreciation parade here but I have always found that this run has become vastly overrated in the last few years. It starts pretty good but it takes a dive pretty quickly (especially after Wagner gets out) and becomes very flawed. As the quality in writing declined, Breyfogle's art improved so probably most people did not notice the drop in quality. I will soon start to review the post-crisis era of Batman issue by issue, pointing all of this out.

IMO the run starts well with the introduction of the Ventriloquist and the Ratcatcher and then it already starts declining. Starlin was doing better stuff but no one cares about him, it seems. I love Mortimer Kadaver though, sadly enough he was killed pretty soon. And so far no one has ever made an attempt to resurrect him. Would still buy a collection.

I love his entire run. One of my all time favorite comic book runs. Sheer brilliance. That scene where Penguin kills Kadaver is one of the best Penguin moments ever. Grant always wrote a fantastically ruthless Penguin.

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"Sometimes I remember it one way. Sometimes another. If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"